Grace Tame says a senior member of an organisation funded by the Australian government asked her not to say anything controversial about Scott Morrison, in a "threatening" phone call while she was Australian of the Year.
Grace Tame appears visibly uncomfortable as she stands for a picture with Scott Morrison Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP
The 2021 Australian of the Year made the comments in an address alongside her friend and former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins at the National Press Club in Canberra today.
Saying she had "nothing to lose", Tame said she received the "threatening phone call" in August last year.
She said the caller was "asking for my word that I would not say anything damning about the Prime Minister on the evening of the next Australian of the Year awards".
"'You are an influential person. He will have a fear,' they said. What kind of fear, I asked myself?"
"And then I heard the words 'with an election coming soon'.
"And it crystallised - a fear for himself and no-one else, a fear that he might lose his position or, more to the point, his power."
Tame said she had made a "conscious decision to stand up to evil" and she would continue to do so.
"You either fight it, or you are a part of it," she said.
Tame was later asked what she had said in response, saying "it doesn't matter now" and refused to say which organisation it was.
The former Australian of the Year caused a stir when she delivered a masterclass in side-eye, in an ice-cold exchange with Scott Morrison on her last day in the role last month.
She joked about it today in reply to a question about which party would be better for women at the upcoming election, replying:
"Permission to use a side-eye?"
'I didn't want his sympathy.'
Earlier, Higgins told the audience she wanted Morrison to use his power as Prime Minister to bring about real action to improve women's safety.
She said she found some of Morrison's language over the course of last year "shocking and at times, admittedly, a bit offensive".
But she said that would not have mattered as much if his actions had demonstrated a commitment to change.
"His words wouldn't matter if his actions had measured up," Higgins said.
"What bothered me most about the whole 'Imagine if it were our daughters' spiel wasn't that he necessarily needed his wife's advice to help contextualise my rape in a way that mattered to him personally.
"I didn't want his sympathy as a father. I wanted him to use his power as Prime Minister."
The two friends are speaking the day after Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese apologised on behalf of the entire parliament for misconduct experienced by many current and former staff.
The statements were the first recommendation of the Jenkins review into the workplace culture within parliamentary offices, an inquiry sparked after Higgins made her rape allegations nearly a year ago.
"It was encouraging and an important sentiment, but I am cognisant that, at this point in time they are still only words. Actions matter," she said.
"What will be the true test is whether the government is committed to creating systemic change.
"Task forces are great, codes of conduct are important, but only if it's paired with institutional change."
She said unless all of the recommendations of the Jenkins review were implemented "we will continue to see this toxic culture exist within our most powerful institution".
- ABC
